European governments have been urged to help the aviation industry to cut carbon emissions by finally agreeing to reform how the continent’s aerospace is managed.
The EU’s longstanding Single European Sky initiative, which aims to improve the management of air traffic by reducing both flight delays and emissions, has yet to be implemented by member states.
During a session at the Airlines 2022 conference in London on Monday (21 November), leading figures from the sector said that implementing Single European Sky (SES) would allow airlines to immediately cut CO2 emissions.
Dale Keller, CEO of BAR UK, which represents overseas airlines flying to the UK, said: “The great tragedy is the complexity of European airspace. It’s a political problem and it’s criminal that it hasn’t been higher on the agenda at COP26 and COP27. We need to get the governments to have political agreement and sort this out.”
Simon McNamara, UK country manager for IATA (International Air Transport Association), added: “Single European Sky has been lumbering on for years and years, and it never seems to happen. It’s criminal that it hasn’t happened as it’s an instant reduction in emissions.”
Earlier this year, the CEOs of several major European airlines said the implementation of Single European Sky could cut emissions by more than 10 per cent through more efficient air traffic management and would make more an immediate impact than the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).
The UK government was also urged to continue with plans to modernise its airspace by Airlines UK’s CEO Tim Alderslade.
Alderslade said it was vital for the industry to tackle “low-hanging fruit”, such as improving the management of airspace and decarbonising airport operations. If this was not done effectively in the next few years, then the sector’s credibility would be “at risk”.
He added that aviation was a “very difficult sector to decarbonise”, which meant it was likely to come under more pressure as other industries cut their emissions more quickly in the coming years.
Alderslade said that the UK government’s Jet Zero Strategy was a “licence for us to grow” and if they did not “get it right”, then the industry’s expected 70 per cent growth between 2019 and 2050 could be under threat.